The British practice of printing the Queen's speech on goatskin is delaying the opening of their parliament

Printing official parliamentary documents on goatskin may look dumb, but the British have a very good explanation

Queen Elizabeth II, reading from goatskin, delivers the Queen's Speech from the throne during State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster on May 18, 2016 in London, England.

Any new session of parliament must be opened with a speech from the British monarch laying out the government’s agenda. With the ink on Queen Elizabeth’s goatskin speech taking up to three days to dry, however, a draft will not be ready in time for the anticipated June 19 opening of parliament.

Confusingly, goatskin does not contain any goat. Rather, it is a high-quality archival paper meant to mimic the properties of vellum — parchment made from animal skin.

The three-day delay needed to prepare the Queen’s speaking notes has long been an annoyance for British parliamentarians. Reportedly, the phrase “going goat” is still used to refer to a draft that is ready for submission to the Queen.

The practice of printing documents on vellum in the 21st century isn’t quite as batty as it sounds.

Vellum is prized for its durability, and many historical documents have survived to the present day in large part because they were written on animal skin.

Several 800-year-old copies of the Magna Carta and the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls remain remarkably intact, while any paper copies would have long ago crumbled to dust.

Goatskin parchment, meanwhile, is only guaranteed to last for 500 years, a troublingly short time period given the lengthy span of British history.

Five centuries would not be long enough to preserve any mention of the dispatch of navigator John Cabot to North America, where he discovered Newfoundland.

The oldest document in the parliamentary archives is from 1497 — 20 years older than the 500-year time limit on goatskin.

Oliver Lang/AFP/Getty Images)

Inconveniently printed speeches are just one strange tradition among many in a ceremony that is utterly laden with bizarre rituals and practices.

On the morning that Queen Elizabeth will give her speech, her personal bodyguard will first perform a ceremonial inspection of the cellars of Parliament — a nod to the foiled 1605 plot to blow up the chamber with gunpowder.

The opening will also feature the ceremonial slamming of a door in someone’s face.

It is tradition for a figure called the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to fetch the members of the House of Commons in order to hear the Queen’s speech in the House of Lords.

To symbolize their independence from the sovereign, however, it is equally tradition for MPs to slam the door in the man’s face.